seventh year
by green umbrella
Summary: Harry turns 17 and decides to have a little fun, the Dursleys get sick of him once and for all, Ron and Harry fail their apparation tests, with interesting happenings at the re-test, Harry sleeps and...Mrs. Weasly COOKS! bet ya didn't see that one coming


Chapter One: Happy Birthday!  
  
"...AHHHH MUM.... MUUUUUUUM HELP AHHHHHHH!"  
  
Vernon and Petunia Dursley came racing to the source of the noise, the boy they housed, but hated, Harry Potter's, room. They slammed open the door, and to their absolute horror, saw their son, Dudley Dursley, suspended in mid air. Petunia screamed, then looked to Harry, who was laying casually on his bed reading a book and happily humming 'Happy birthday to me.' then they saw that he had his WAND pointed directly at their son, making him hang like that.  
  
"BOY!" yelled uncle Vernon.  
  
"Oh, hello," said Harry.  
  
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Roared uncle Vernon.  
  
"Reading Flying With The Cannons," said Harry, barley holding back a smile.  
  
"Help me!" screamed Dudley  
  
"Put him down!" Shrieked Petunia  
  
Harry looked up Dudley with a mock look of surprise on his face.  
  
"Oh, how did you get up there? I think you had better come down now," said Harry, as he dropped his wand and finally couldn't hold it in any more; he started cracking up laughing.  
  
"THINK IT'S FUNNY, DO YOU?" Roared uncle Vernon.  
  
"Actually, yes," said Harry. As he started laughing all over again, "It's hilarious!"  
  
"Well you've had it now," said Vernon, with a nasty smirk on his face, "they'll be expelling you from that, that, that place you go to."  
  
"You mean Hogwarts?" asked Harry. "Oh, no, they won't be expelling me for this."  
  
"And why not?" Asked Petunia. "You've been lucky before now, but I'm quite sure there are no more loop holes for you to jump through!"  
  
"No," said Harry. "no loop holes, only the fact that as of today I'm seventeen years old, therefore of age, and therefore able to as much magic as I please, as long as it's not around Muggles who don't already know about wizards."  
  
"Oh really," said uncle Vernon with yet another nasty smirk on his face, "If you're 'of age' then you're old enough to leave this house, and I dare say Petunia won't be saving you this time."  
  
All three of them looked over to Petunia, it was obvious that she would be deciding the matter. She had a very pained expression on her face, and she looked over to Harry as if he were some vile thing, as it was him who was causing her to make this decision. She wanted so badly to just say, "yes make him leave," but then she remembered all the things Dumbledore had told her, she was about to say, "I'm sorry Vernon, but he'll have to stay." Then she looked over and caught site of her son, bruised and sporting a broken nose due to the fall, in which he landed face first, and her 'sorry' became,  
"Sure, but he'll have one week to find a place to go, he is family after all." She said this last bit with a voice that was beyond disgust. ********************************************************************** Once everyone had left his room Harry rose, dumbfounded, to his desk and drew to him a quill, some ink, and a sheet of parchment, and wrote a letter to Ron. Ron, The Dursleys have kicked me out, but they've given me one week to find a place to go. Could you ask your parents if I could stay with you until I do find a place to go? If it's all right with everyone I'll take the night bus over as soon as possible.  
Thanks,  
Harry  
  
Harry walked across his room and woke his owl, Hedwig.  
  
"Sorry, but this is really important." said Harry. "I need you to take this to Ron, now,and it would be good if you could try to get there fast."  
  
She held out her leg for the letter.  
  
Harry secured the letter and she took flight.  
  
"Well," thought Harry. "I should probably study for my apparation re- test tomorrow. This has been a very interesting birthday."  
  
So with that Harry hit the books and studied diligently for the rest of the evening. He had failed his first test and was determined not to do so again. As he studied he kept replaying the events of the afternoon in his head, and he realized why his uncle had been so quick to suggest him leaving.  
"He's probably been waiting for this kind of opportunity for the past two years, ever since the Dementor attack," thought Harry, who shuddered at the memory. "Damn bastard." ********************************************************************** Harry awoke the next morning to an impatient Hedwig pecking his ear waiting for him to wake up and take Ron's reply so she could go to sleep.  
  
"Wow," thought Harry as he untied the letter. "That was fast." Harry opened the letter and read:  
  
Harry, Of course you can come! Why do you even need to ask? Mum says 'there will be none of this Night Bus talk, we'll come pick you up.'  
  
Harry paused, thinking of the last time the Weasleys had come to "pick him up" it hadn't been pretty, they'd used floo powder, and blown half of the Dursley's living room to bits, Harry smiled at the memory, then laughed out loud at the memory of the look on Aunt Petunia's face.  
  
Don't worry, we won't be picking you up via floo powder this time.  
  
"Damn," thought Harry.  
  
So, seeing as you proposed the Night Bus, I assume you didn't pass your apparation test, neither did I, Hermione did I'm sure. Sorry I haven't been writing very much, but Errol finally died, poor thing, and Pig's about as reliable for post as a cucumber. So any ways, back to apparation, I landed in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, close to America! Fred and George laughed SO hard, but it wasn't funny, as far as I'm concerned, I almost drowned!  
The Dursleys are gits,  
Ron  
  
"I wonder how they will be picking me up, I'd better ask, just to be safe," Thought Harry.  
  
Ron, How will you be picking me up? No, I didn't pass my apparation test, I landed on a camel, some where in Egypt, scared the poor muggle riding it half to death, they had to do some serious memory work on him! So the Atlantic Ocean huh? Well, sorry, but that is funny! That means you'll be at the re-test today doesn't it? Don't they only do the re-tests one day? Hope to see you there, thanks for having me!  
The Dursleys are gits,  
Harry  
  
"Sorry Hedwig, this should be the last one," said Harry to a very disgruntled Hedwig, who had just been getting to sleep.  
  
"Don't be so upset, you can take your time with this one," said Harry.  
  
Hedwig glared at him while he finished tying the letter to her leg and sent her on her way.  
  
"Well," thought Harry. "It's 8:00 now, and I should probably leave around noon, so I'll get a couple of hours of studying in before I go."  
  
Harry pulled out his Guide to Safe and Quick Apparation, and went over the important parts in his mind: Step one: Make sure your destination is one that is not likely to be crowded, have a muggle near by, or any obstructions, such as large trees. These can be painful. Step two: Make a clear picture of your destination in your mind, it must be as accurate as possible. This will get easier with time. Step three: With your mind, feel yourself moving, not necessarily in any direction, you just need to have a feeling of movement. Step four: Picture yourself in that destination, and then concentrate all your thoughts of movement to that place.  
  
All of that Harry had down pretty well, his problem was measuring how far to go, at his first test he was supposed to end up at a small Wizard town on the southern border of England, he'd just pushed to hard, and gone too far, that sounded like Ron's problem too. He'd done very well on the written portion on the test though; he'd gotten a very high 'E'. He hoped they wouldn't make him do that part over again. After a while he glanced down at his watch and saw that it was 11:50, time to go. Harry scribbled a quick note to the Dursleys, then grabbed some money out of his trunk and left. It was a miserable time; it always was a miserable time on the Night Bus. **************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** ***************************** So that was chapter one. What did you think? Be sure to review, I'd love the feedback! Okay, in the next chapter Harry goes to get his apparation test, but things don't turn out exactly as planned, and Harry's having some sort of "episodes." So here's chapter two, enjoy! (Yes one and two are both on this page, because chapter one was really short, so I had to combine!) **************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** **************************************************************************** ***************************** Chapter Two: The BIG Test, and A little Bit of shopping  
  
One jarring and painful Night Bus ride later, Harry stood in a slightly shady part of London, directly in front of a "broken down" telephone booth, which Harry knew to be not broken at all, but rather very much in use. It was the visitors' entrance to the Ministry of Magic. Harry stepped in and dialed 6-2-4-4-2. A familiar cool voice said,  
  
"Welcome to The Ministry of Magic. Please state your name and business."  
  
"My name's Harry Potter, and I'm here to re-take my apparation test," said Harry, quite calmly, due to having been here twice during 5th year, and quite a few more during his 6th.  
  
"Thank you," said the familiar voice.  
  
"Visitor, please take the badge, and attach it to the front of your robes," said the same familliar voice.  
  
There was a clink in the place where you usually got your change, and Harry picked up a badge that said:  
Harry Potter  
Apparation re-test  
  
Harry pinned this to his robes as the cool voice told him that he had to get his wand checked at the far end of the atrium. Then the booth began to sink down.  
  
When Harry walked out of the booth he was suddenly flooded with all the memories of what had happened here his 5th year, and his scar seared with pain, he almost fell down, but managed to catch himself just in time as the pain slowly faded away. Still feeling shaky, Harry had his wand checked, which was a-okay, and before he knew it, he was standing in front of a door that simply read:  
Apparation Harry had some serious butterflies as he opened the door, and despite having been here before, was amazed at the size of this room, which, despite it's size, was packed with people. Harry battled his way up to the front of the room by accidentally stepping on many toes, elbowing many people, and uttering many, "Sorry's," and "Excuse me's." He finally got to where he had to put his name down for a time. When he reached the paper, he was depressed to see that the whole thing was booked up until 11:30 p.m.  
  
"Well," thought Harry. "Isn't that just great!" He searched the paper until he found the name he was looking for:  
Ronald Weasley 2:30 p.m.  
  
Harry looked at his watch and realized that it was just about three, so that meant Ron should be getting done some time soon. He walked over in the general direction of the door marked 'exit' from the testing room, and his heart gave a leap of joy, there, standing by the door, obviously waiting for Ron to come out, was Mrs. Weasley!  
  
"Hi Mrs.Weasley!" Called Harry.  
  
"Oh! Harry dear, we were hoping to see you here! Of course we were planning on picking you up in Arthur's new car, but seeing as this is going to be so much easier, we were hoping to see you here," said Mrs. Weasley, very fast. At the happy, but bemused expression on Harry's face Mrs. Weasley asked,  
  
"Ron did tell you about our new car right?"  
  
"Er.actually, no," Said Harry.  
  
"Oh that boy!" Said Mrs. Weasley."Well, the Ministry's been so happy with Arthur's work for the A.V.L. that they gave him a raise, a promotion, and a new car! Isn't that great!?"  
  
"Yeah!" Said Harry."Er, what's the A.V.L.?" Harry felt very cut off from the wizarding world indeed.  
  
"Oh, that's just the order, but the Ministry found out about it this summer, so they decided to make it a 'Ministry Operation,' and they changed the name to 'The anti-Voldemort League.' Personaly, I don't see how we went over a year without the ministry finding out about the order, or why we didn't tell the ministry about it once they knew he was back," continued Mrs. Weasley.  
  
"Why'd they do that?" asked Harry.  
  
"Well, they wanted to take credit for it," Said Mrs. Weasley  
  
"I assumed that. I mean, why did they give it such a corny name?" asked Harry.  
  
Mrs. Weasley was spared an answer to this question, because just then Ron came out, looking Flushed and exausted, but very happy.  
  
" I passed!" He yelled.  
  
"Oh good!" Cried Mrs. Weasley, a look of enormous relief spreading across her face. "Not that I was worried, of course."  
  
"That's great!" Said Harry.  
  
when is your appointment?" asked Ron.  
  
"Well," said Harry gloomily, "I just got here a couple miniutes ago..."  
  
"Oh dear," interrupted Mrs. Weasley.  
  
"I know," said Harry. "So my appointment's not until 11:30."  
  
"Sucks to be you!" Said Ron while starting to laugh.  
  
"Ronald..." said Mrs. Weasley in a warning tone.  
  
"Oh, yes I've just remembered," said Mrs. Weasley, in a completely different tone now that she was addressing Harry. "Dumbledore went ahead and sent your letter to us, he seemed to assume you would be coming to stay."  
  
"Thanks," said Harry as she handed him his letter. "I was wondering when I'd get this."  
  
"Well, we'd better get to Diagon Alley while we're out, there's no point in waiting here until 11:30. We'll come back, maybe you can get a nice square meal in after we've finished shopping, you look like you've been living on carrot sticks, and not very many carrot sticks at that!"  
  
They walked over to the lifts to get down to the atrium, where the Floo Network was. As Harry stepped on to the lift, he was suddenly transported back in time, he was in the death chamber, and he heard him self below,  
  
"SHE KILLED SIRIUS! SHE KILLED HIM--I'LL KILL HER!"  
  
Then suddenly he was running into the lifts after Bellatrix, the feeling of rage, everything, felt just as it had that night, and then, just as he reached the lifts, it was all gone, and he was laying on the floor, with Ron and Mrs. Weasley hovering over him.  
  
"Are you alright?" Shrieked Mrs. Weasley.  
  
"What happened?" Yelled Ron.  
  
"I...I'm fine...it...it was n-nothing...just tripped," stammered Harry.  
  
"Sure, okay," said Ron disbelievingly.  
  
"Well.er...let's get going," said Mrs. Weasley. *********************************************************************** Harry was still dazed when they walked up to the fires, but came to his senses enough to say "Diagon Alley!" in a clear enough voice to end up there. Once they were in The Leaky Cauldron Harry told them that he needed new robes (he'd grown quite a bit over the summer.) So they decided that Harry and Ron would go to Madam Malcolm's, while Mrs. Weasley took everyone's list and went to Flourish and Blotts, but first they had to go to Gringotts. They emerged about forty-five minutes later with their moneybags considerably fuller. While at the Weasley's vault Harry had noticed, with a surge of great pleasure, that due to Mr. Weasley's raise, their vault was quite a bit fuller. It was his own vault that had worried Harry, after six terms, it was quite a bit more empty than it had been six years ago, he just kept telling himself that he only had one more term at Hogwarts, then he'd have a job and be making his own money. After that Ron and Harry split up with Mrs.Weasley and made their way up to Madam Malkin's.  
  
"Okay," said Ron. "So do you want to tell me what really happened, you didn't just trip."  
  
"So...how about this weather?" Harry asked.  
  
"Harry," said Ron in a demanding voice  
  
"I wonder how long till it gets rainy?" asked Harry.  
  
"Harry"  
  
"So...you and Hermione still together?" asked Harry.  
  
"HARRY!"  
  
"Ok, ok, fine, I really don't know what happened. I just...all of the sudden; I was back, back on the night when Sirius...when Sirius...you know...it was like I was there all over again," Harry admitted.  
  
Ron looked like he had quite a few more questions, but just then they reached the store, so they stopped talking and went in. ***********************************************************************  
  
"It's only 5:30 now, we'll go back to the Burrow for a little meal, and maybe a nap before your test,"said Mrs. Weasley as they walked back to The Leaky Cauldron.  
  
For the second time that day Harry went through the crazy and dizzying experience of Floo Powder. He was shot out into the burrow, and as he stood up he muttered,  
  
"Ugg, I'll never get used to that."  
  
"Me neither," said a small voice behind him.  
  
"Oh, hi Ginny," said Harry. "where is everyone?"  
  
Harry was used to the Burrow being full of red-hair and freckles, It was kind of disorientating to only see one other person, well actually three because just then Ron came, and Mrs. Weasley right after him.  
  
"Fred and George are all bent on being' independent', so they moved out and don't come back too often, Bill and Charlie are busy at work, and Percy doesn't come too often, he's still embarrassed about everything that happened, which is stupid, it's been over a year seince he found out we weren't all a bunch of crack pots,and Dad's working," said Ginny.  
  
"Wow!" Said Harry. "I don't think I've ever seen the Burrow this empty before."  
  
"Do you want to do a bit more studying?" asked Ron.  
  
"Sure," said Harry.  
  
The second they got into Ron's room, he closed the door, turned around, glared at Harry, and said, "Is that the first time that had happened?"  
  
"What do you mean?" Harry asked, pulling out his book. "I thought we were going to study."  
  
Harry wasn't sure why he was so intent on not discussing his "episode", but he just was, not even with Ron.  
  
"You know perfectly well what I mean," said Ron. "Is that the first time that flashback thing has happened to you?"  
  
"Actually, no," Harry said with a sigh. "It happened when I first got to the ministry, but I didn't fall down or anything, my scar just hurt, and when it happened at the lifts, it was one specific memory, the first time it was all just really vague, but it was still...that night when..." He couldn't say it, he just couldn't say Sirius and died in the same sentence, still after all this time, he just couldn't.  
  
"I need to sleep," said Harry.  
  
"Sure," said Ron. "I'll wake you up when you need to get ready."  
  
"Thanks," said Harry, and he fell right asleep on Ron's bed.  
  
It was not as refreshing a nap as it should have been, because the whole time he dreamt of nothing but his worst memories. ***********************************************************************  
"Harry...Harry...HARRY! WAKE UP!" yelled Ron, shaking Harry.  
  
"Umgidibumph..." replied Harry.  
  
"Harry, come on, just get up!" Said Ron pleadingly, while pulling away all of Harry's blankets and pillows. "I've only been shouting at you for the past twenty freaking minutes!"  
  
"Okay, okay o-okaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay," said Harry, through a huge yawn.  
  
Harry looked at his watch and saw that it was almost 10:30, he got dressed then went down to the kitchen, where Mrs. Weasley had a huge dinner waiting for him.  
  
"I know...I know...It's a little late, and everyone else ate already, but you need to eat!" said Mrs. Weasly as he walked into the room.  
  
"Wow!" Said Harry. "Thanks."  
  
The food, of course, was delicious, and Harry soon lost count at how many times Mrs. Weasley filled up his plate. Then they were off, Ron and Mrs. Weasley came with.  
  
So, for the third time in one day Harry went through the sickening experience of Floo Powder. Once he got out he just thought to himself that hopefully he would not have to rely on Floo Powder any more. When they got to the apparation room, again Harry had to fight his way to the front; he got there just as the witch in front of the doors to the testing room yelled out,  
  
"Potter...um, Potter, Harry!"  
  
Harry sighed, couldn't people just say his name? He walked over to the lady who goggled at his forehead for a second, the seemed to snap out of la-la land, or wherever she was, and said,  
  
"Right through these doors."  
  
Harry walked through the doors she was pointing to, and found himself in a large room. Much smaller than the last one he'd been in, but still large. There was a small desk off to one corner; the room was devoid of any other furniture. Harry walked over to the desk were there was a pleasant looking witch was sitting.  
  
"Hello," she said cheerfully. "Today we'll be sending you to a town in America, it has the highest Wizard population of any muggle town. The town is Salem, Massachusetts, here is your picture of where you'll be going, it is a small daisy meadow on the out skirts of town, as you can see there is a large 'X' cut into the grass."  
  
Harry stared at the picture she had handed him; the 'X' certainly didn't look that big to him. The lady continued,  
  
"Once you've arrived there, you will have to come back here and land on that 'X'." She was pointing at Harry's feet. He looked down and realized that he was standing on a very evil looking, bright red 'X'. "Are you ready?" asked the witch.  
  
Harry took a deep breath and then replied,  
  
"Yeah, I'm ready."  
  
"Alright then," said the witch. "good luck!"  
  
At this Harry closed his eye's and began to concentrate, going through all the steps from his book in his head, then he heard a CRACK and he felt humidity, which he was some what used too, but he also felt heat, oh goodness, it was hot!  
  
"I don't think I'm in London anymore," muttered Harry.  
  
He was scared to open his eyes, but finally he did, and to his great astonishment, and joy, he saw all around him the exact meadow from his picture, and both his feet were on the 'X', sure only his left pinky toe, but hey, that was still part of his foot, and all of his right foot was on. Harry almost let out a whoop of joy, but didn't, he simply let out a sigh of relief, and reminded himself that he was only half way there. Again he concentrated with all he could, this time on the room from where he had come, and again he heard a CRACK, and the heat was gone, and so were all the calming sounds of the meadow, those were replaced by the all too familiar sounds of the Ministry. He opened his eyes and saw that his feet were firmly planted on the evil 'X.' Only now it suddenly didn't seem quite so evil.  
  
"Congratulations!" said the witch, while smiling from ear to ear. "Seeing as you've already passed the written portion of the test, you've officially passed."  
  
Harry left the room to meet Ron and Mrs. Weasley fifteen minutes later, after filling out the necessary paper work, with a huge smile on his face.  
  
"I passed!" he said excitedly.  
  
All three of them apparated home together. 


End file.
